Speaker of the Dead
by April Snow
Summary: Yuna, Rikku, Paine find a mysterious black dressphere. what secrets can it contain?
1. Chapter 1: Black sphere

Yuna griped to the wall and started to make her way up the mountain. "You can't be serious Yunie." Rikku called from below "we can't climb Mt. Gagazet." Yuna kept on climbing, slower now, but still climbing. The sun was setting on the mountain as dusk approached and the wind seemed to blow so hard that it intended to knock Yuna down, but the wind could not push her. "Yunie" Rikku whined. Finally Yuna stopped and looked down upon Rikku and Paine.

"Come on girls, that dressphere can't be to far now" Yuna shouted down. Paine, being understanding, nodded her head and jumped unto the wall and started to climb the steep mountain.

"Not you too" Rikku sighed. She played with one of her braids and then impatiently tossed it to the side of her head. "Fine I'm coming too!" Rikku grunted and started to pull herself up the mountain behind Yuna and Paine. It was hard to climb the mountain but this was what they lived for, sphere hunting.

When they reached the top of the mountain the sun had completely vanished from the sky and forced them to make camp. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine did not sleep that night, they all kept thinking about the dressphere they were hunting. There hadn't been a reading of a sphere in months so this was the highlight of their year so far. Trying to take their minds off the new sphere they looked up at the dark night sky. The stars of other galaxies and world shone down on the three that night, giving them memories of their ship the Celsius. How long have they been away from the ship, Yuna asked herself. It seemed like a month or so for they had lost contact with the ships crew and were not aware of the time. But the worries drifted away as Yuna fell gently to sleep.

They had awakened to the bright rays of the sun in the morning. There was no time for breakfast so they pressed on into a well lighted cave. "I've never seen this place before" Whispered Paine. All around them the walls glistened with an aqua tone to every rock. Jewels were studded into all the walls which made if even more beautiful. Rikku stopped to stare at some of the jewels, even tired to take one of them, but Yuna and Paine Kept going. Up ahead they could see an open room that glowed with an ocean blue. The blue made the room look like it was under water, but that that was impossible. In the center of the ocean blue room was a beautiful pearl pedestal.

"There it is" Yuna gleefully chirped as she ran over to it. On the pearl pedestal lay a small sphere. It was different from the others for on the inside it had a black mist-like look instead of the normal color of a sphere. Soon Paine and Rikku ran up behind Yuna and peered down on the Sphere.

Rikku examined the pedestal to see if there were any traps or anything of interest. "Yunie look there's something written on the pedestal." Rikku pointed out. She started to read it out loud "Speaker of the dead… beware…" Rikku hesitated "I can't read the rest."

Yuna reached out for the sphere and picked it up with ease. The room when dark and all around them they started to hear the thundering sound of rain falling. All of a sudden it stopped. Nothing was around them, no walls, no ocean blue light, it even seemed that there were no floors. What happened? Yuna looked around at Paine and Rikku, they looked confused, as did Yuna. Suddenly the ground began to shake and the wind blew at them fiercely. As the wind blew Yuna could hear a deep growl that formed with the sound of the wind. Fallowing the wind's growl were Screams, screams of many people filling her head. Yuna looked up at Rikku and Pain who were still standing against the wind, But neither seemed to hear the scream that she could. In a moment it all stopped; the wind, the shaking, the darkness, and the screams all stopped.

"What was that?" Paine asked, not looking for an answer.

"I don't know but I want to leave right now!" whimpered Rikku. Yuna didn't question her for she wanted to leave right away also. Rikku ran off to the opening in the cave and Paine fallowed close behind. But Yuna didn't leave right away. Instead she opened her hand to see the black sphere lying tightly in the palm of her hand. Was this all because of this little thing? All the wind, the growl, the screams? All because of some small sphere that lay in Yuna's Clutch.

"Yuna" Paine called from up ahead. She closed her hand around the sphere and dropped it in her pocket. She would bring it back to the Celsius to find the secrets it would hold. But for now she would have to find the Celsius.

"Coming!" Yuna called ahead and ran out of the darkness.

_Speaker of the dead…beware… _


	2. Chapter 2: Seeing the dead

The sun was high, and burnt the sands of the Bikanel desert. Yuna, Rikku and Paine slowly slummed across the vast wasteland that they had to cross.

"Yunie why are we here?" Rikku fell to her knees and panted from the heat. "It's so hot, can we please take a break?" Rikku swayed her head around to try and keep and breeze going. It did not work.

"Get up." Paine turned to face Rikku. She was not happy to be here either but she was one to take it and show no emotion. Yuna stepped ahead and looked around at the empty wasteland. All that coated the area was a large amount of cacti. Wait a minute, Yuna thought. With this many cacti around there must be water near by. This news exited her for they had not had any fresh water in at least a day. Yuna ran over to Rikku to share the good news.

"I think I know where we are! And if I'm right there will be an oasis near by too. Probably just over those hills." Rikku jumped up, still moving around to try and make a breeze. She skipped ahead gleefully and yelled for them to go as fast as they could, who would disagree? So Yuna ran after her with Paine walking far behind.

They reached the top of the small hills that over looked the wide desert. The sand here was hotter and the air was harder to breathe in because of the elevation. Rikku and Yuna scanned the cactus filled area as Paine caught up. In front of then about ten feet was, as Yuna predicted, was a large oasis!

"Whoopee!" Rikku tumbled down the hill towards the water. Without hesitation she jumped into the water and splashed around. Yuna started towards the oasis when Paine stopped her.

"Yuna, have you notice how hot it is here?" Paine didn't wait for an answer "It never been this hot before" she glanced up at the sun. Yuna knew that Paine was worried but did not show it.

"Maybe" Yuna trailed off. This worried her too. A couple minutes pasted as they pondered the thought.

"Never mind" Paine Shook her head and walked down the hill. Yuna simply tried to forget it and moved on wit Paine. Yuna sat on the sand and put her hand in the water. It wasn't very cold; in fact it was quite warm. She looked around. Maybe the Celsius was around here, but all Yuna could see were the miles of cacti. She looked back at the water and then at the land again. Something caught Yuna's eye. It was moving very fast, so fast that it was on fire. She got to her feet and quickly moved behind a close by cactus to get a better look.

Rikku stopped splashing around and looked at Yuna. "What is it Yunie" She asked walking out of the water. Paine also got to her feet and walked over to Yuna.

Yuna lifted her hand up and pointed at the fast moving fire ball "that thing there, that's what's making everything so hot." As it came closer Yuna could make out what it was. "An elder dragon" She said speechlessly. How is that possible, Yuna though, they don't live in this part. Yuna rubbed her eyes and looked closer. Its wings were blazing as fire spouted from them. It was larger then any normal elder dragon and had arrow sticking out of his back. This thing must have survived many battles, Yuna thought as it came closer.

"We'll have to fight it" Paine whipped of her sword.

"Wait" Rikku stopped Paine from charring. "Why don't we use that new Dressphere we found!" she looked over to Yuna and smiled. Yuna reached down into to her pocket and took out the sphere. She stiffened in case the world would go dark and the wind would blow again. But nothing happened. The three of them put the dressphere into a garment gird and started to transform. Yuna could feel her old gunner dress being changed into something new. She had a cold feeling inside the pit of her heart. It made her feel as if someone was watching her. She slowly opened her eyes to see her new costume and powers. She was wearing a long black dress that was torn from the hip to end of the dress. The neck of the dress went all the way up and frayed out. The right arm of the dress was tight on her arm and started to get larger and fray at her elbow. The left arm was completely torn off and in its place was a black fish net glove that connected to the seam of the shoulder. The whole entire outfit was covered by chain that came together at a lock near her neck. Also, all of Yuna's hair was let out of her long pony tail and flow onto the ground. The last thing about the dress was the gray chain of beads that was wrapped around Yuna's left arm. She looked up to Paine and Rikku. They were still in the same old outfits they wore everyday. Their faces told Yuna that they didn't know why they didn't transform but Yuna asked anyways.

"Why are you still the same?" she pleaded.

"I don't know" Rikku teasingly snapped. "Maybe it only works for you." Rikku Smiled but Yuna could tell something was wrong. Yuna looked around, the elder dragon approached quickly. She searched her mind for attacks that she could use on the dragon. All that came to her head were two attacks. One was called sudden death and the other was called seeking life. Yuna figured the second one to be healing magic and the first one to be an attack. So she closed her eyes to call forth the powers of sudden death but she did not notice how close the dragon was. It rammed into Yuna casing her arm to start bleeding. I'll heal myself later, Yuna thought as she stood up. Once again she called forth the powers of sudden death and did not fail. The clouds of the bright sky turn black and then everything when silent. Before her the dragon fell to the ground and turned into many spirit balls and drifted away. Yuna looked around as the sky cleared up, was that it? Did I kill it? already? She looked to Paine and Rikku. They looked as surprised as Yuna was. Time passed and no one said anything so Yuna decided to heal herself. She called on the power of seeking life, but that did not heal her. Suddenly it turned Yuna's blue and green eyes red, redder then Paine's, and before her she could once again see the elder dragon.

"Yuna how did you-" Yuna stopped Paine form going on.

"Stay back, the dragon is still alive" she prepared to call upon sudden death again as the dragon prepared to charge.

"What are you talking about Yunie" Rikku questioned as she ran over to Yuna. Yuna faced Rikku, was she crazy? The dragon was preparing to charge right this minute.

"Cant you see the dragon? its right there!" Yuna pointed to the empty area where the dragon had died. Rikku lifted an eyebrow in confusion. Yuna looked back to the dragon as it started to charge at her. There was no time to do anything but lift her hands up over her head for protection. The dragon came closer and closer until it was so close that it went right though her. Yuna, now in a cold sweat, put her hands down and looked behind her to the dragon. She now saw that the elder dragon was slightly transparent. It _was_ dead, Yuna realized.

"Are you ok?" Rikku asked circling around the awe stricken Yuna. She circled around once more and then stood strait up in front of her. Yuna caught her breath and began to speak.

"I can see it, Rikku, I can still see the dragon." Yuna trembled. "I know its dead but its there."

Rikku looked at her puzzled. It almost seem as if she ignored what Yuna had said as she spoke. "Your eyes are red" Yuna looked to Paine. Paine was shocked But nodded truthfully. "Maybe you should change to a different dressphere Yunie." Rikku told her, and she was right. Yuna took out her garment grid and choose to switch back to her normal gunner garment. She closed her eyes to begin the transformation process but noting happen. Yuna Blinked and tried again, still nothing.

"It's not working" Yuna mumbled. But that didn't matter to her. What mattered was the fact that Yuna could see the dead and she could not get it to go away.

_Speaker of the dead…beware…_


End file.
